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as in to rape
to engage in sexual activity and especially intercourse with a person unwilling or unable to give consent criminal statutes delineating acts that constitute violating another person

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of violate Most Popular Most Popular Famed research sub Alvin arrives in San Diego after crew witnesses volcanic eruption in Pacific Paradise Point resort violated Coastal Act for years. Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 May 2025 Again the court ruled the law violated Congress’ commerce power and again Souter countered the Constitution gave lawmakers broad power to decide how to define commerce. Maureen Groppe, USA Today, 10 May 2025 Would a coach violate HIPAA by disclosing that student’s physical condition? Holly Yan, CNN Money, 10 May 2025 What To Know Saturday was the last day of a unilateral three-day ceasefire declared by Russia that Ukraine says Moscow itself had repeatedly violated. Brendan Cole, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for violate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for violate
Verb
  • Most of them lasted for about one microsecond before breaking apart.
    George Petras, USA Today, 17 May 2025
  • Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
    Danielle Bacher, People.com, 16 May 2025
Verb
  • These things could be coincidental, or could, as the main character suggests, be the work of fairies upset that their pools were desecrated in this way.
    Deborah Treisman, New Yorker, 18 May 2025
  • The audit also noted a Jewish cemetery in Waterbury that was vandalized with more than 12 gravestones desecrated.
    Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 22 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • Ventura filed the first prominent civil lawsuit against Combs in 2023, alleging that the rapper and record executive had physically assaulted, trafficked and raped her.
    Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR, 16 May 2025
  • Fred and Rose West were accused of raping, torturing, and killing at least 12 people over more than 20 years.
    Monica Mercuri, Forbes.com, 16 May 2025
Verb
  • Six of nine planetary boundaries — the limits deemed safe for humans to enjoy stable and prosperous lives on Earth — have been breached.
    Nina Seega, Forbes.com, 13 May 2025
  • Earlier this year, authorities shut down the farm in Cheongju, South Korea — where the owner had been breeding dogs and serving their meat in his restaurant for 40 years — for breaching the Animal Protection Act, according to the charity (formerly Humane Society International).
    Bailey Richards, People.com, 12 May 2025
Verb
  • At least 144 structures were destroyed and parts of Highway 44 were shut down, said St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay.
    Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 15 May 2025
  • An embarrassing, humbling, shocking Game 5 defeat showed that. All the same problems, the ones that destroyed Leaf team after Leaf team and ultimately ended Sheldon Keefe’s time as head coach, are emerging again at the worst possible time.
    Jonas Siegel, New York Times, 15 May 2025
Verb
  • The suit alleges that Robinson assaulted one woman at least 23 times from May 2014 to February 2020, often in places in his home without security cameras.
    Phil Helsel, NBC news, 8 May 2025
  • Combs assaulted women, by among other things, striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them.
    Steve Weisman, Forbes.com, 7 May 2025
Verb
  • In the first case, DC Gambling Recovery LLC (the plaintiff) alleges that the law legalizing sports betting in the district contravenes federal law.
    David B. McGarry, Baltimore Sun, 21 Apr. 2025
  • The letter noted that the Administration’s demands contravene the First Amendment and federal law and rejected the premise of the ultimatum.
    Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2025
Verb
  • The sacred plant, long defiled, heralded, as in the time of the Inca and all the ancient civilizations of the Andes, as a gift of the gods.
    Wade Davis, Rolling Stone, 6 Apr. 2025
  • In the Parsi tradition, the bones are left there to gradually disintegrate over time, completing the return to nature without defiling the earth.
    Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 4 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Violate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/violate. Accessed 22 May. 2025.

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